Well-mannered discussion Re: Bookmarks for topics of interest

On Sat, 7 Feb 2004, Joe Clark wrote:

>
>> This is an interesting list, but I wonder how many WCAG WG members
>> didn't bother to read that far because Joe choose to throw in a
>> gratuitous insult in the first sentence.
>
>If the shoe fits, wear it.

Insulting, abusing, and bullying people isn't a useful contribution to
technical discussion. It is effective in ensuring that some people who are
not as expert as you in "pissing contests" (explanation of the term at the
end of the message) will withdraw from the discussion, thereby allowing the
bully to play big fish in the pond they are shrinking.

>> I think you'd get better response if you didn't start out by slapping
>> the people you're trying to persuade.
>
>Kynn's the last person to advocate being nicey-nice all the time. Being
>nice rather than technically accurate is one of the problems of this
>Working Group.

No, I don't think he advocates being nicey-nice. I read his suggestion as
avoiding gratuitous insults, because their effect is detrimental to good
technical discussion. I am not blameless in this respect, and nor is Kynn.
However, making an effort in this direction has been valuable in attracting
and maintaing input from a large number of technical experts, something which
I see happening less and less in this group where the need is in fact very
great because of the wide range of its scope.

just my 2 cents as a person.

Chaals

Received on Tuesday, 24 February 2004 14:46:55 UTC